“SLEEP NO MORE " Sta,—I write to protest about the
poem under the above title appearing in your issue of October 8th. Its general trend is to disturb the minds of our Pilots and the minds of their parents. Consequently it would be warmly approved by Hitler. I happen to be the (proud) father of a Pilot myself, and believe implicitly that the war we are waging is vital to stop the world being subjugated by the two most bestial races in history.
The maudlin stuff in this poem is a definitely subversive attack on our faith in the righteousness of our cause. Presumably the author, " W. R. H.," would have us parents and Pilots prefer that our bombs should be dropped on German fields—or the sea—instead of on German factories. That would suit Hitler admirably, because he only wants a " peaceful year " to manufacture such engines of destruction as shall blast our ships from the sea and our souls from our bodies.
That is what " W. R. H." seems to desire. I don't.—Yours, &c.,
[The doctrine that certain vital questions like " obliteration bombing " should be banned from public discussion in a democratic country is not admissible. The Spectator, while holding that the R.A.F. and the American Air Force will by shortening the war save far more lives than they destroy, sees no ground for suppressing reasonable statements of opinion on the subject, whether expressed in letters or in a poem.—ED., The Spectator.]
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